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Disturbing Trends in Israel
Palestine is still the number one issue. The war on Iraq is an offshoot. Doubt it? Read on.
More Israelis than ever before are thinking the unthinkable. An April poll found that 44 percent of Israeli Jews support "transfer" of the Arab population. Posters throughout the country proclaim, "Transfer = peace and security." "Us here, them there" and "Jordan is Palestine" are popular slogans. An hour of school time was devoted to the teachings of Rehavam Ze’evi, chief exponent of the idea, who was assassinated last year. "Transfer" is discussed openly on talk shows.
What is "population transfer?" The concept dates from 19th century Zionism, and refers to removal of the Palestinians from their land, in order to make room for (or enlarge) Israel. How does Israel propose to do this?
One way is to create conditions that motivate the population to leave. These include 24-hour curfews for months on end, seizure and destruction of farmland and crops, diversion of water resources, systemic road closures, house demolitions, and other methods of denying livelihood. Referring to the Palestinians as a "cancer" and to the repressive measures imposed in the occupied territories, Moshe Ya’alon, leader of Israel’s armed forces, recently stated, "There are all kinds of solutions to cancerous manifestations. Some will say it is necessary to amputate organs. But, at the moment, I am applying chemotherapy." [Ha'aretz, August 30, 2002] The implication, of course, is that "amputation" may be next.
Reduction of the Palestinian population through repression may be too slow, however. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said for 54 years that the war of 1948 was "unfinished" because only three-fifths of the Palestinian population were driven from their land at the time. Sharon was held "personally responsible" by the Kahan Commission for the massacre of more than 1700 Palestinians, mostly old men, women and children, in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in 1982. 17,000 Lebanese were killed in the war. He will do whatever is necessary to finish the job.
With the resignation of the Labor party from the ruling coalition, Sharon’s Likud is now its most moderate member. Likud’s partner, the Moledet (fatherland) party espouses a more thorough ethnic cleansing, including one-fifth of Israel’s own citizens. Never has Israel had a more extreme government.
Martin van Creveld, Israel’s leading military historian, describes a plan in which three divisions of the Israeli army would drive up to 2 million Palestinians from the West Bank into Jordan while the remaining nine divisions secure the rest of the country from outside interference. Horrific as it may sound, Israeli commanders are actually studying the tactics used by the Nazis to clear the Warsaw ghetto. [Ha’aretz, Jan. 27, 2002] The plan is designed to be used under cover of a Middle East war.
That war may soon be upon us. On September 28, 2002, 98 Israeli academics published a letter in the Guardian (U.K.), declaring, "We are deeply worried by indications that the "fog of war" could be exploited by the Israeli government to take further action against the Palestinian people, up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing." That declaration now has nearly twice as many signatures, and is being joined by another letter from roughly 800 American colleagues. We can hope that such thinking will prevail, but the sad truth is that more and more Israelis now view ethnic cleansing as acceptable.
What is America doing to support the voices of reason? Are we withholding even a portion of our massive aid as Israel seizes more Palestinian land and deprives Palestinians of their livelihood? To the contrary, increasingly large aid packages, including a new request for up to $14 billion, supports the very settlements we condemn and the repressive conditions which foster Palestinian extremism and suicide bombers. It is time to reconsider how we view Israel’s interest and our own before we become accomplices to one of the great crimes against humanity.
What is "population transfer?" The concept dates from 19th century Zionism, and refers to removal of the Palestinians from their land, in order to make room for (or enlarge) Israel. How does Israel propose to do this?
One way is to create conditions that motivate the population to leave. These include 24-hour curfews for months on end, seizure and destruction of farmland and crops, diversion of water resources, systemic road closures, house demolitions, and other methods of denying livelihood. Referring to the Palestinians as a "cancer" and to the repressive measures imposed in the occupied territories, Moshe Ya’alon, leader of Israel’s armed forces, recently stated, "There are all kinds of solutions to cancerous manifestations. Some will say it is necessary to amputate organs. But, at the moment, I am applying chemotherapy." [Ha'aretz, August 30, 2002] The implication, of course, is that "amputation" may be next.
Reduction of the Palestinian population through repression may be too slow, however. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said for 54 years that the war of 1948 was "unfinished" because only three-fifths of the Palestinian population were driven from their land at the time. Sharon was held "personally responsible" by the Kahan Commission for the massacre of more than 1700 Palestinians, mostly old men, women and children, in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in 1982. 17,000 Lebanese were killed in the war. He will do whatever is necessary to finish the job.
With the resignation of the Labor party from the ruling coalition, Sharon’s Likud is now its most moderate member. Likud’s partner, the Moledet (fatherland) party espouses a more thorough ethnic cleansing, including one-fifth of Israel’s own citizens. Never has Israel had a more extreme government.
Martin van Creveld, Israel’s leading military historian, describes a plan in which three divisions of the Israeli army would drive up to 2 million Palestinians from the West Bank into Jordan while the remaining nine divisions secure the rest of the country from outside interference. Horrific as it may sound, Israeli commanders are actually studying the tactics used by the Nazis to clear the Warsaw ghetto. [Ha’aretz, Jan. 27, 2002] The plan is designed to be used under cover of a Middle East war.
That war may soon be upon us. On September 28, 2002, 98 Israeli academics published a letter in the Guardian (U.K.), declaring, "We are deeply worried by indications that the "fog of war" could be exploited by the Israeli government to take further action against the Palestinian people, up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing." That declaration now has nearly twice as many signatures, and is being joined by another letter from roughly 800 American colleagues. We can hope that such thinking will prevail, but the sad truth is that more and more Israelis now view ethnic cleansing as acceptable.
What is America doing to support the voices of reason? Are we withholding even a portion of our massive aid as Israel seizes more Palestinian land and deprives Palestinians of their livelihood? To the contrary, increasingly large aid packages, including a new request for up to $14 billion, supports the very settlements we condemn and the repressive conditions which foster Palestinian extremism and suicide bombers. It is time to reconsider how we view Israel’s interest and our own before we become accomplices to one of the great crimes against humanity.
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Hamas rejects Egyptian proposal to halt suicide
attacks in Israel
By Ha'aretz Service and Agencies
A senior Hamas official said Friday his group will not stop its suicide attacks in Israel, ahead of inter-Palestinian talks in Cairo aimed at reaching a truce, which he said will start January 22.
"Hamas officially informed Egypt of its final answer: our position is against ending the resistance and abiding by a one-year truce," Abdelaziz Rantissi said, stressing that "operations inside Israel would continue."
Israel responded coolly to Egypt's decision to invite a broad spectrum of Palestinian factions to landmark face-to-face talks in Cairo next week on an Egyptian proposal to halt attacks against Israel.
The key element of the Egyptian document is a promise by Palestinian factions to halt attacks on Israeli civilians, according to Palestinian officials who have seen the draft.
But the document does not specify whether this also applies to Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, though officials close to the negotiations say Egypt is trying to win at least an informal agreement by the militias to halt all attacks, not only in Israel itself.
The declaration asks Israel to help pave the way for a resumption of negotiations by halting targeted killings of suspected Palestinian militants, arrests and incursions into Palestinian areas. Israel is also asked to release Palestinian prisoners; it currently holds more than 5,000.
"Egypt invited 10 Palestinian factions, including Fatah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine to Cairo for truce talks on Wednesday [January 22]," a Palestinian official said. He told Reuters the parties would discuss the Egyptian draft proposal.
An adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Ra'anan Gissin, criticized the agenda of the talks, on the grounds that they will focus on ending attacks only inside the 1967 Green Line border.
"We would have welcomed a real cessation of all types of terrorism and violence, but this seems like all talk but no performance," said Gissin. "Stopping terror is indivisible, you have to stop it completely," he said, not only inside Israel.
Gissin also criticized Egypt, the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, for incitement to violence against Israel through its mass media.
If all the parties agreed to come and sit at the same table, the parley would be the first of its kind.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said Thursday no date for the next meeting has been set. "We hope the Palestinian factions reach an agreement that supports the efforts moving toward a settlement," he said.
But so far only Fatah has endorsed Egypt's proposal and the Palestinian official said important questions remained, such as whether Israel would withdraw from some areas and cease assassinations of militant leaders if the truce takes hold.
Islamic Jihad, Hamas: No end to occupation, no truce
Earlier Thursday, however, militant leaders in the territories said there would be no cease-fire until Israel "ended the occupation."
"The withdrawal of the occupation is the condition for stopping the attacks. [We pursue] resistance of all forms and everywhere," Abdallah al-Shami, a senior Islamic Jihad figure, told Reuters.
He declined to clarify whether he meant withdrawal from Gaza and the West Bank, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War, or Israel also.
Islamic Jihad and Hamas have carried out most of the major suicide attacks inside Israel and their approval would be crucial to the truce deal Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman is trying to broker.
Hamas official Ismail Haniyah also said his group has not changed its position.
"Resistance will continue until Israeli occupation is over and until Israel's killing of our people stops and until the rights of our people are regained," Haniyah said.
"Truces and initiatives should come from the side of Israel and not from the Palestinian and Arab sides. The party that occupies and kills should stop first."
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak wants the Palestinian groups to reach an agreement to halt terror attacks against Israel before the January elections, Channel Two Television reported last week.
A senior Fatah official said that the Egyptian officials involved in the talks, headed by Suleiman, have been working on a joint statement of intent for several weeks.
-----
What's that sound? It's the sound of the Palestinians blowing yet _another_ chance for a Palestinian state.
@%<
This is what is REALLY going on:
The proposal by Egypt for the last upteen months was hams, jihad stop operations in isreal, isreal commits to stoping its (immoral and illegal policy -according to the fourth geneva convention-) assassination of guerilla and political leaders whivh frequently result in killing scores of innocent bystanders including children. All along, isreal maintained that attacks agianst the (illegal/colonial/brooklyn) settlers and the army in the west bank and gaza must also stop.
So what does egypt (the US client state) do? Change the proposal to call for the fighters to stop the attacks and send a "request" to isreal to stop the murder. This is truly laughable... would buy that if you were in their shoes? they have always agreed to the originial proposal binding both sides but isreal doesn't want it!!
APARTHEID ISREAL DOES NOT WANT PEACE, PERIOD.
This is what is REALLY going on:
The proposal by Egypt for the last upteen months was for hamas and jihad to stop operations in isreal, isreal in return "commits" to stoping its policy (immoral and illegal -according to the fourth geneva convention-) of assassination of resistence and political leaders which frequently result in killing scores of innocent bystanders including children. All along, isreal maintained that attacks agianst the (illegal/colonial/brooklyn) settlers and the army in the west bank and gaza must also stop.
So what does egypt (the US client state) do? Change the proposal to call for the fighters to stop the attacks and send a "request" to isreal to stop the murder. This is truly laughable... would you buy that if you were in their shoes? they have always agreed to the originial proposal binding both sides but isreal doesn't want it!!
APARTHEID ISREAL DOES NOT WANT PEACE, PERIOD.
This is what is REALLY going on:
The proposal by Egypt for the last upteen months was for hamas and jihad to stop operations in isreal, isreal in return "commits" to stoping its policy (immoral and illegal -according to the fourth geneva convention-) of assassination of resistence and political leaders which frequently result in killing scores of innocent bystanders including children. All along, isreal maintained that attacks agianst the (illegal/colonial/brooklyn) settlers and the army in the west bank and gaza must also stop.
So what does egypt (the US client state) do? Change the proposal to call for the fighters to stop the attacks and send a "request" to isreal to stop the murder. This is truly laughable... would you buy that if you were in their shoes? they have always agreed to the originial proposal binding both sides but isreal doesn't want it!!
APARTHEID ISREAL DOES NOT WANT PEACE, PERIOD.
Maybe a two state solution will be possible when people stop feeling good when things go bad? I mean its almost like gehrig likes it when Hamas acts badly and the antiZionists like it when Israel acts badly since it give each side an excuse to say "I told you so" And one weird part of human nature is that the joys of saying "I told you so" seem to outweigh thousands of deaths...
AntiZionists paint all Israelis as racist bastards who want to kill or get rid of all Palestinians. proIsrael types paint all Palestinians as racist bastards who want to kill or get rid of all Jews. Perhaps the only real bastards are the people posting here who enjoy taking sides in a conflict more than finding a solution?
Feeling _good_? Nothing would have made me happier than to read that Hamas had at last come to its senses. But neither Hamas nor Islamic Jihad want a two-state solution, and they can be counted on to do everything in their belt-bombing power to prevent any sort of progress, using any sort of excuse. And in doing so, they have pushed Israel to the right.
And you'll do me the favor of not putting words in my mouth of the "all Palestinians as racist bastards who want to kill or get rid of all Jews" variety. That is not what I believe, and it is not what I have said. I've been a supporter of the two-state solution since long before Oslo. There are indeed progressive Palestinians who are trying to work toward peace with Israel -- but they, like the Israeli left, have been shunted aside, by Likud and by Hamas and (frankly) by Arafat too. My beef is not with the Palestinian people; I just believe that the Palestinian leaders have an uneviable five-decade history of making heartrendingly awful decisions, decisions which are paid for in the blood of both sides and in the extension of a conflict that could have been settled long ago. I don't endorse Sharon, by a long shot, but Sharon has only been PM for a few years, and his present policies are neither the historical norm nor universally endorsed by Israelis -- just as Bush's Saddam hang-up doesn't represent the US, although he claims it does. Just check out Ha'aretz to see the extent of the dissent within Israel to Sharon's grievous mishandling of the situation.
It's a simple, pragmatic fact, that no state is going to intentionally act in any substantive way against its own security. Period. No matter how many bumper stickers and peace rallies, no matter how many Left Coasters wagging fingers. Palestinian moderates know this, and know that this is the chief reason the suicide bombings have to stop. Because Israeli is not going to intentionally act in any substantive way that leaves large portions of its civilian population at substantive risk -- and a Palestinian state in which Hamas is free to roam, at will and with demonstrably explosive results, is by any definition a substantive risk to Israel.
The implicit argument many here seem to hold is that Hamas would be weakened or marginalized in a Palestinian state. Boy, I wish I could believe that, but history tells a different story. Arafat tells a different story. And Hamas tells a different story.
The Camp David Accord showed what even a hard-right Israeli PM could do when negotiating with someone who really _means_ peace, instead of simply miming it. If the Palestinian leadership simply looked at that history, they'd know what to do.
This is why Hamas' statement doesn't fill me with a sense of joy but a sense of tragedy -- once again, they are letting the real possibility of real peace, this time being the Saudi plan, slip through their fingers again. Sadat didn't get Israel to withdraw from the massive Sinai peninsula using belt-bombers on Israeli busses full of school-children. Even now, if Arafat suddenly grew a backbone, he could bring the abhorrent suicide bombings to a halt, and _that_ would be powerful, powerful evidence that he had finally taken the "peace" message to heart.
@%<
And talk about Palestine blowing a chance for statehood! Israel is blowing a chance for preventing WWIII by continuing it's unjust war of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians!
The whole world is against Israel and now the US will soon follow and condemn Zionism and force Israel to transform into a true democracy with equal rights and justice for all regardless of religion, race or sex.
Even Hamas & Islamic Jihad have learned their lesson the hard way not to trust the zionist state.
Actions speak louder than words. If isreal wants to really tone down the violence it would stop the murder of innocents and the assassinations. Every time there is a lull in the violence the criminal sharon government goes out and assassinates somebody to re-start the suicide bombings. The criminal sharon government's very survival depends on perpetuating the violence.
Thanks GOD that people are waking up to this fact!
(snip)
. . . 14 elements that all fascist regimes have in common.
(snip)
7. The cultivation of irrationality - the impulse was more important than logical thought. Irrationality led to a cult of death - witness the Spanish Fascist slogan: Arriba la Muerte! - Long live Death!
(snip)
Break's over. Back on your knees.
And stop tracking mud on my nice clean floor.